Database Develop

Exclude directories from media scan?

Hey all,
Anyone know if its possible to exclude certain directories (or only scan certain directories) from the media scanner? I have a bunch of games on my phone that put audio / video files on the SD card. The media scanner picks these up and means when I am in music player I have thousands of tiny sound effect files from the games listed. Bit annoying to say the least

i believe you can get around this by adding a file .nomedia into the directory
ive never tried it personally but thats the way. a google search for .nomedia on android will probably point you in the right direction if no one can give u a 100% answer.
this link may provide more information:
code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3692
might be worth trying on a test folder first.......

Sweet, that works a treat.
Thanks!!

Yep, worked here too...saved me from makin a post
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

Grims said:
Yep, worked here too...saved me from makin a post
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
..... did not.

So this post is over a year old but you know what it was useful and also worked for me!

and here is free app from market to do that =)
StudioKUMA .nomedia Manager

Do not apply this
Did any of you actually read the issue report mentioned by OrionTC? (code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3692)
It says that if you place a .nomedia file in a directory, all media files that were previously indexed inside will also get deleted from the file system because of a bug!
The bug report was officially closed on May 3rd but if there ever was a working fix, it hasn't made it into any major distribution of Android 2.2 and upwards.
So if anyone finds this thread (like me) and applies the .nomedia solution without reading the bugreport (luckily unlike me), I hope they see this warning.
Do not apply this solution if you care about any of the files inside the affected folder (+ recursive folders inside)!!
Apparently I'm not even affected by this, but I'm on a custom ROM so it's not clear who put the fix in or whether I tested this correctly.
On the issue report there's a Nexus S user confirming the issue on his stock Android 2.3.4.
Please subscribe to the reopened issue report code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=19798 and comment there if you're able to reproduce this on your device. (use a test folder!)

emmm...
I DO NOT know what is written somewhere.
I know what I DID.
So, let me make one suggestion to you: before posting: check.
On stock Froyo, then JVQ/JVR - i NEVER experienced this, although I put .nomedia files on.... some directories.
ALL files remain visible, and can be view/transferred.copied if I want.
Again: try. Make: dummy folder on SD card, copy ONE jpg there, and then - make .nomedia file there.
Browse, edit, reboot, make whatever you want. then: delete .nomedia file. Browse with gallery, and whatever you want.
TIP: your link refers to i-897 model, we are here with i-9000. then: sorry, mate, but who's so stupid idiot, who expect that AFTER FACTORY RESET, his/hers files will remain?
Isn't it obvious, that during factory reset you shall remove card/copy your files?
Let me just remain you: FACTORY RESET should format ALL your files, not the media ones, and if any of your file is remaining - this is a bug.

This is a general issue at the core of android, just happens to be discussed in the I9000 forum. I found it through Google.
The factory reset in the new issue report isn't important. This is also reported to happen after a simple remount of the sd-card.
Factory resets shouldn't touch the sd.
As I already stated, I couldn't reproduce the problem myself, but since people of various models and Android versions reported this, including Nexus S, I think it's important to point that out.
I couldn't in good conscience give the .nomedia advice to anybody, as long as the bug hasn't been confirmed dead for some time. It's just too gross and too risky.

Nomedia trick is safe...the folder n all sub folder will be excluded in media scanning. It doesnt delete or adds files...it just scan..
Thread closed. Problem solved already.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

I'm not sure about Samsung, but I've just lost 10GB of videos because of this bug on HTC Desire S, [Endymion V2.1|Sense 3.5|GB 2.3.5].
The problem is when media scaner "knows" about your files, and you add .nomedia. After next rescan are all media files deleted. Not by mediascanner itself, but by some job connected to mediascanner database.

Horacek said:
I'm not sure about Samsung, but I've just lost 10GB of videos because of this bug on HTC Desire S, ....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure about Samsung, but uncle of my grandma's sister's nephew lost his pants when entered the church. We all think that it was a God's will... and is common to SGS same way as your post...

holy shmoly youve got my banana face moulded in concrete award for that one

I know this is an old thread, but since this is one of the first results when googling how to hide directories from media scanning, I'm reporting here that the ".nomedia" solution had always been the official solution: https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/data-storage.html.
Hiding your files from the Media Scanner
Include an empty file named .nomedia in your external files directory (note the dot prefix in the filename). This prevents media scanner from reading your media files and providing them to other apps through the MediaStore content provider. However, if your files are truly private to your app, you should save them in an app-private directory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The bug reported by @OrionTC should be no more relevant in recent Android versions.

[APP][WINDOWS]ZOE Repair Tool

So maybe it's just me, but I've been taken off guard by the wipe features on the HTC One clearing /sdcard along with the usual user data a few times. It's a bit of a struggle to find your "happy place" after remembering a couple minutes too late that the bootloader unlock actually erases the media storage too...so much for that nandroid backup you made just in case
Luckily, these phones come with all sorts of backup options right out of the box - but these (DropBox image backup specifically) have a few "quirks" that don't really work in our favor. One that especially ground my gears was the fact that dropbox doesn't play nice with the ZOE's filename-based groupings. So now those 12 ZOE shots you had now show up as 252 individual files. Neat.
So, since I'm overall a very lazy person it's safe to assume I had little to no interest in manually renaming each and every one of these files to make my Zoe collections work again. Ain't nobody got time for that. That's exactly what I made this tool to do for me, because hastily writing a few lines of code sounded way more appealing than fixing all those files just hitting the delete key.
Now, I can't reiterate enough that I'm really lazy. That being said, this tool is poorly written. I even decided that it was easier to simply disable the ability to minimize it rather than bother messing with a crash bug related to that option. Don't worry though, there's still plenty of ways to make this program crash horribly.
So without further ado: I made a thingy, and I'm sharing this thingy that I made with you. In case you're stupid about backing up your media storage, like me.
DISCLAIMER: I AM AN AWFUL PROGRAMMER AND I PUT VERY LITTLE TIME OR EFFORT INTO THIS. I ALSO MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE COAUTHORED THIS WORK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH A BOTTLE OF VODKA. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK, MAKE BACKUPS, AND GENERALLY JUST BE READY FOR DISAPPOINTMENT. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING THIS APPLICATION MAY OR MAY NOT DO.
Using this app is pretty simple.
1) Copy your defiled Zoe images to a new folder (I can't promise you that this thing won't screw up, so make sure to work with COPIES of the files!). I didn't trust this with my original backups and neither should you!
2) Open the application and choose the directory that you copied the files to.
3) All the JPG files in that folder will be listed in the upper list, these may or may not be in correct order because the backup function doesn't even name them in a way that always sorts correctly. Focus on one Zoe at a time and use the arrows to put the files from that set in the correct order.
4) Use Ctrl/Shift+Click to select all 20 images from that Zoe's set.
5) Once you've selected 20, the app will try to guess which MP4 file to choose in the box below. This feature is super basic, make sure to double check that it has selected the correct file, correct this selection as necessary.
6) Look in your phone's /DCIM/100media folder to see how high the file numbering goes for the images on your phone. There's a box on the application bottom-right to fill in a number. Type in a number that is NOT already associated with another image on your phone.
7) If everything is selected correctly, the "Rebuild my ZOE" button should become usable. Click it. It should (hopefully) tell you that it has finished working on the selected files.
8) Move the newly renamed IMAGXXXX_ZOEXXX files back onto your phone's internal storage.
9) Rinse and repeat until all your files are renamed appropriately to be recognized as ZOEs.
PS - This application was was written in VB2012 using the .net framework 4.5, if you get errors starting it, make sure you have this framework installed. Source code is available upon request if anyone actually wants to put time into making this suck less, but for me it's "good enough".

Looks very handy.. Thanks
sent from the HTC "one"

Tardeaux said:
I ALSO MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE COAUTHORED THIS WORK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH A BOTTLE OF VODKA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry... That little section made me choke! lol You're a funny guy. I can see this being a useful tool though.

Finding this made my day. Thanks man.

Thanks for this, huge time saver! The little preview is a plus to help weed out any accidental inclusions.

I'm glad you guys found this useful
I'm twice as glad that HTC changed the way the Zoes are saved in the new software release :good:

[Q] File Explorer/manger on WP 8 ?

Just got my wife a Lumia 520 and i noticed it does not have a file manager... is this normal?
I'm used to have file manager on Android so this is quite lame...
Also any idea on how to add musics (MP3/WMA) on the ringtones?
Thks

So... the Internet has these things called "search engines" which you can use to find all manner of cool things. You should really try using one of them.
1: Yes, it's normal that there is no file manager built into WP8. There wasn't one in WP7, either. This is not news. Know what you're buying...
2: There are apps (both on the Store and on this forum) which add very limited file browsing and management capability. However, the OS is extremely restrictive of app permissions - moreso than your typical Android build - so most of the filesystem is unreadable and all but a tiny portion of what's left is read-only.
3: Did you even read the little info sheet that comes with your phone? You would save us all a bunch of time if you did. Connect the phone to your computer using USB. It will appear as an MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) device. You can use this to copy media files (including songs and ringtones) to the phone, as well as copying other media files (such as pictures or video you took) from the phone to the PC. If you're running Windows, it will also offer to install an app to make synching easier. Pretty much every OS has tools for working with MTP devices, including all desktop-oriented Linux distros I've ever tried.

Think of the apps as the file browser. An app that can manipulate a certain file type will show you all of that type of file on your phone. Coming from android you will have to rework your way of using your phone. And SKY DRIVE is your friend. And I'm glad you posted your question because I for one have used and love wp8 although I use my note 2 as my daily. I love people that say search for the answer yet give a long drawn out sarcastic answer anyway.
1.No file browser.
2.Use apps for manipulation of said files
3.Sky drive is your friend. It COULD be said it's wp8s file manager.
4. Have fun!
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

You can hook your phone to your PC and use the Windows Phone app for desk top, this will let you browse your files as far as music, ringtones, pictures and videos; I'm not sure if it includes documents but it the closest to what you are looking for because system files are off limit like the guys just explained.
What I don't understand is if you can view your files from your PC why can you do the same from the phone? Oh well maybe one day like in an update; this would be cool for browsing for files on your SD card...

GoodDayToDie said:
So... the Internet has these things called "search engines" which you can use to find all manner of cool things. You should really try using one of them.
1: Yes, it's normal that there is no file manager built into WP8. There wasn't one in WP7, either. This is not news. Know what you're buying...
2: There are apps (both on the Store and on this forum) which add very limited file browsing and management capability. However, the OS is extremely restrictive of app permissions - moreso than your typical Android build - so most of the filesystem is unreadable and all but a tiny portion of what's left is read-only.
3: Did you even read the little info sheet that comes with your phone? You would save us all a bunch of time if you did. Connect the phone to your computer using USB. It will appear as an MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) device. You can use this to copy media files (including songs and ringtones) to the phone, as well as copying other media files (such as pictures or video you took) from the phone to the PC. If you're running Windows, it will also offer to install an app to make synching easier. Pretty much every OS has tools for working with MTP devices, including all desktop-oriented Linux distros I've ever tried.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok so i appreciated the help but i don't really explain well in the OP.
I apologize for the way i wrote the OP, i was frustrated after unsuccessful search for a way to work around the limitations of the OS...
I did not know that the WP7 and 8 did not add an file manager, but the other part i did know :/ so no need to be so sarcastic in your reply (last time a used a Windows based phone it add windows mobile and it did have file explorer much like other OS's).
What i really meant was if anyone knows a way to work around the OS locks on the file system and of course an file explorer that uses it... But after more search i find none
I'm still pretty happy with the lumia 520... just frustrated that i cant add files were i wanted.

Yeah, that exact question has been asked before. People are working on it. Part of the reason I wrote my webserver app was to facilitate deeper exploration of WP8 in the hopes of finding a way to unlock more permissions. So far, no dice. The OS is still young, however.
With that said, from a "what can I do with it" perspective, it's best to think of WP8 as being like iOS: until or unless "jailbroken", everything runs with extremely low permissions.

GoodDayToDie said:
Yeah, that exact question has been asked before. People are working on it. Part of the reason I wrote my webserver app was to facilitate deeper exploration of WP8 in the hopes of finding a way to unlock more permissions. So far, no dice. The OS is still young, however.
With that said, from a "what can I do with it" perspective, it's best to think of WP8 as being like iOS: until or unless "jailbroken", everything runs with extremely low permissions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok thanks for the info .
After some research i got the idea that WP8 as worst than iOS in terms of restrictions :/...
Thats really a shame because this Lumia 520 hardware its really nice for the price. It will be awesome wen someone is able to root it.
Still i will keep using Android on my personal phone... (this one was bought for my wife).

sinister1 said:
You can hook your phone to your PC and use the Windows Phone app for desk top, this will let you browse your files as far as music, ringtones, pictures and videos; I'm not sure if it includes documents but it the closest to what you are looking for because system files are off limit like the guys just explained.
What I don't understand is if you can view your files from your PC why can you do the same from the phone? Oh well maybe one day like in an update; this would be cool for browsing for files on your SD card...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far i can't move files (wma and MP3) to the inner folders on the ringtone folder... and the custom ringtone option does not let me chose other files than the one it came from factory
Not really a big bummer but it just seems a stupid limitation...

"Inner folders"? I just dragged files to Phone\Ringtones and they appeared at the top of the list, under "Custom". I didn't even need to resize them or change the genre, as WP7 required.

GoodDayToDie said:
"Inner folders"? I just dragged files to Phone\Ringtones and they appeared at the top of the list, under "Custom". I didn't even need to resize them or change the genre, as WP7 required.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well i tried every folder on the phone (that are available to the user) and the OS still does not let me choose custom musics for ringtones... :/

Exnor said:
Well i tried every folder on the phone (that are available to the user) and the OS still does not let me choose custom musics for ringtones... :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Music files should go into the music folder and ringtone files go into the ringtone folder, this is what I did; I put in an SD card and created Folders on it with the same name as the ones on the internal storage and placed all my music and ringtone files there, when you go to ringtones it shows up under custom, if your talking about alert tones for MMS or SMS then you are out of luck other than ringtones the only thing you can change is your alarm tones.
This is a big mistake by MS by not allowing users to use customer tones form email and SMS or MMS their are customers that are actually returning their phones and exchanging them for Android and even iPhones because of this and other limitations. Users have been asking for this since 2011 on MS's very own suggestion page (check it out here) and MS hasn't even responded or given a hit to fixing this issue.
For you guys who know me well and see that I bring this subject up a lot, I apologize but MS needs to wake up and stop trying to restrict even the simplest of tasks.

1. Connect the phone via USB. An MTP device, with the phone's name, will appear (for example, in Windows Explorer).
2. Open the phone device. You will see a "drive" called "Phone". There may be a second volume called "SD card".
3. Open the Phone volume. You will see the following folders: Documents, Music, Pictures, Ringtones, Video.
4. Open the Rintones folder. It should not have any sub-folders.
5. Copy the music you want to use, as MP3 or DRM-free WMA (I think DRM-free AAC/M4A also works), into this folder.
6. On the phone, go to Settings, then Ringtones+Sounds, and tap on the box under Ringtone.
7. Scroll to the top of the list. There will be a header "Custom", under which the music you added to the Ringtones folder will be listed (by title metadata, not file name).
8. Tap the Play icon beside a song if you want to see how it sounds as a ringtone, then tap the song you want to use as your ringtone.
If this doesn't work, be very, very specific about what step looks wrong (i.e. is not as described) and what you see instead. Also, be specific about the kind of music you're trying to use. I have tested using 128Kbps (constant bit rate) stereo 44.1KHz MP3 and WMA files of up to about 4:40 long.

sinister1 said:
Music files should go into the music folder and ringtone files go into the ringtone folder, this is what I did; I put in an SD card and created Folders on it with the same name as the ones on the internal storage and placed all my music and ringtone files there, when you go to ringtones it shows up under custom, if your talking about alert tones for MMS or SMS then you are out of luck other than ringtones the only thing you can change is your alarm tones.
This is a big mistake by MS by not allowing users to use customer tones form email and SMS or MMS their are customers that are actually returning their phones and exchanging them for Android and even iPhones because of this and other limitations. Users have been asking for this since 2011 on MS's very own suggestion page (check it out here) and MS hasn't even responded or given a hit to fixing this issue.
For you guys who know me well and see that I bring this subject up a lot, I apologize but MS needs to wake up and stop trying to restrict even the simplest of tasks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok i'm gonna try with an SD card and i will post my results. Thks for the tip :good:

GoodDayToDie said:
1. Connect the phone via USB. An MTP device, with the phone's name, will appear (for example, in Windows Explorer).
2. Open the phone device. You will see a "drive" called "Phone". There may be a second volume called "SD card".
3. Open the Phone volume. You will see the following folders: Documents, Music, Pictures, Ringtones, Video.
4. Open the Rintones folder. It should not have any sub-folders.
5. Copy the music you want to use, as MP3 or DRM-free WMA (I think DRM-free AAC/M4A also works), into this folder.
6. On the phone, go to Settings, then Ringtones+Sounds, and tap on the box under Ringtone.
7. Scroll to the top of the list. There will be a header "Custom", under which the music you added to the Ringtones folder will be listed (by title metadata, not file name).
8. Tap the Play icon beside a song if you want to see how it sounds as a ringtone, then tap the song you want to use as your ringtone.
If this doesn't work, be very, very specific about what step looks wrong (i.e. is not as described) and what you see instead. Also, be specific about the kind of music you're trying to use. I have tested using 128Kbps (constant bit rate) stereo 44.1KHz MP3 and WMA files of up to about 4:40 long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep did all that ...
The only thing i did not try yet is to create a subfolder in the Ringtones folder like i've read somewhere... i will try to do all the processes again and try other tips and i will post my results as soon as i can.
Thks for the help

GoodDayToDie said:
1. Connect the phone via USB. An MTP device, with the phone's name, will appear (for example, in Windows Explorer).
2. Open the phone device. You will see a "drive" called "Phone". There may be a second volume called "SD card".
3. Open the Phone volume. You will see the following folders: Documents, Music, Pictures, Ringtones, Video.
4. Open the Rintones folder. It should not have any sub-folders.
5. Copy the music you want to use, as MP3 or DRM-free WMA (I think DRM-free AAC/M4A also works), into this folder.
6. On the phone, go to Settings, then Ringtones+Sounds, and tap on the box under Ringtone.
7. Scroll to the top of the list. There will be a header "Custom", under which the music you added to the Ringtones folder will be listed (by title metadata, not file name).
8. Tap the Play icon beside a song if you want to see how it sounds as a ringtone, then tap the song you want to use as your ringtone.
If this doesn't work, be very, very specific about what step looks wrong (i.e. is not as described) and what you see instead. Also, be specific about the kind of music you're trying to use. I have tested using 128Kbps (constant bit rate) stereo 44.1KHz MP3 and WMA files of up to about 4:40 long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Finally i got it to work...
Like i've said i've done the above (like you suggested) the 1st time and repeated and nothing happen.. so i reset the phone!
Copied just one file to the ringtone folder and success it worked (!). I don't know why it did not the other times ... Now my wife can copy her musics and put hers ringtones as she like.
Here is my device info in case its usefull for anyone:
model: Lumia 520
MMN: RM-914_eu_portugal_281
OS version: 8.0.10211.204
HW rev:1.0.0.0
Firmware rev: 1030.6408.1309.0003
Thanks for the help guys

OS is young and the questions you posted, really needs to be solved. MS has put too much restrictions in OS but I think it will open some APIs and remove some restrictions in WP blue update due in early 2014. I only need limited file explorer to manage my personal files, a good Music & Video app(VLC is coming) and a notification center, that's it. All would be well for me to jump the ship from Android.
Btw, try Kirik file browser. It gives you some limited accessibilities on SD card.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Vishwal said:
OS is young and the questions you posted, really needs to be solved. MS has put too much restrictions in OS but I think it will open some APIs and remove some restrictions in WP blue update due in early 2014. I only need limited file explorer to manage my personal files, a good Music & Video app(VLC is coming) and a notification center, that's it. All would be well for me to jump the ship from Android.
Btw, try Kirik file browser. It gives you some limited accessibilities on SD card.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely agree. MS still as lot to do on this OS... But for people who don't need more computing options its a good choice (i think i like it better than iOS...).
Thx for the tip, i've already try it does help a little.
So far besides the OS limitations my biggest disappointment is the store... there is not enough programs to satisfy my needs :/ But like i stated before i'm happy with the device (actually my wife is lol since its her that uses it).
Switching from Android... hmm no. I don't see myself switch to WP or iOS (btw i have iPod touch 4th gen) for so many reasons, but to start the integration with my Google account and services.
I had a Qtek back in 2k3 (actually was a job phone) and used Windows Mobile (or was it CE?? cant remember) and back then i love it. But the "updated" Windows OS for mobile does not give me the same experience. Android so far is my favorite (gonna give a try to Ubuntu touch since i use Ubuntu at work... lets see how it performs).

The whole thing is that WP8 is designed to protected installed apps _from other installed apps_. Any data an app writes, is completely off limits to any other application. So a file manager would be compeltely pointless. If someone would create one, you could create files and maybe even download files in the folders you created.... but no other app would ever see that data.
this makes programs that can download data (Windows File sharing, FTP clients, etc..) to be played by another program (music player, video player, etc..) impossible.
I do agree though that WP8 needs to create a single 'unmanaged, unprotected data pool' where all apps can write / read, probably organized by folders just so people understand it.
If an app then wants to write data there, it knows it got no protection and is on its own. But if an app wants to write personal data (appointments, messages, contacts, that kinda of thing) it can write it in it's own data store like WP8 is now and the data is protected from every other possible app.
If they will do this for Blue... I don't know. I haven't seen it on a list anywhere yet.

Well, you can ask the OS to open a file (the equivalent of ShellExecute on Win32) and that can be used as a form of inter-app communication and file passing (sending a file from a file browser to the media player is possible, for example). The trick is that it's a blind push; there's no way to ask for the file back, or query what files there are. Also, the other app needs to choose to download the file.
There are Capabilities in the WP8 security policies which could be used to make a decent file browser, at least for the basic stuff (media libraries, documents, a "common area" on the file system, etc.). However, we cannot currently sideload any application which uses them, and I very much doubt MS would let us publish such an app through the store (although it might be worth trying...)

GoodDayToDie said:
Well, you can ask the OS to open a file (the equivalent of ShellExecute on Win32) and that can be used as a form of inter-app communication and file passing (sending a file from a file browser to the media player is possible, for example). The trick is that it's a blind push; there's no way to ask for the file back, or query what files there are. Also, the other app needs to choose to download the file.
There are Capabilities in the WP8 security policies which could be used to make a decent file browser, at least for the basic stuff (media libraries, documents, a "common area" on the file system, etc.). However, we cannot currently sideload any application which uses them, and I very much doubt MS would let us publish such an app through the store (although it might be worth trying...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am fairly certain the current situation will probably change with WP8.1.
if wpdev voice website is an indication of their intentions for wp8.1, things will look very nice soon enough.

Android Voice and Sound Mod

A zip containing computerized system voices for android devices. For anyone interested in the idea or for those bored with the default sound schemes.
I know there may be more out there similar to this but I decided to create computerized system voices for android devices. Technically these can be used with just about anything but they were created for the Android specifically. The XT-861 to be exact. Some of the quotes are specific to the device, but most are general system quotes. This is the female set. I am making a male set as well. I will upload when I'm done. If anyone would like to comment or request anything specific don't hesitate to ask. Also, if there are others sets like this, apps, etc. Feel free to post them and share. Enjoy everyone!! Feel free to download share, reup, etc. Just give me credit..
Install Notes:
Some android phone system sounds are in .OGG format others in .MP3
This set contains both formats..
For The XT-861 XT-860 XT-862 devices:
Use Root Explorer or whatever root file and folder browser you prefer.
Navigate to Root/System/Media/Audio
There you'll find multiple folders such as UI, Ringtones, EFI, Notifications, etc.
Navigate to either folder that contains the system sound you would like to replace.
I suggest renaming the default files by simply adding .bu (backup) at the end of the file. Afterward, add the new sound and rename it to match the original (without the .bu of course).
For all other sounds you can use an app called "Light Flow" or any similar alternative. That'll give you much more control over individual sounds.
If there are any questions or help needed let me know!

Do I use the same instructions for my Galaxy S3? A la Root Explorer? Looks pretty cool. Thanks for posting.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using xda premium

dave2metz said:
Do I use the same instructions for my Galaxy S3? A la Root Explorer? Looks pretty cool. Thanks for posting.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow that was pretty fast!
Yes, I'm sure the Galaxy media folder is in the same location, some folders may be named differently but this is usually where the system sound folders reside. Just navigate to System/Media/Audio and the folders should reside there. Copy files, rename them accordingly with any root explorer then Reboot. You may have to set permissions to match the original files as well before reboot. It should be rw-r-r.
As far as Light Flow is concerned, I don't see why it wouldn't work on the Galaxy. What sounds lightflow can control depends on your device and what apps you have installed.
Thanks for the thanks and let me know how it goes!

System sounds are found on the SD card and the internal System/Media folder as well. If you have a folder on your SD card, built in or external, labeled "Notifications" or "Ringtones" etc. the android system will recognize them and the files within them will be added to your list when changing ringtones or notification sounds the standard way. As long as they are the correct format of course. So depending on which sounds you intend to use, they should be able to be placed there. Also, some apps have the option to assign a unique ringer or notification sound for that app only within the apps settings. Basically Between the System folder, the SD card folders, Light Flow, Individual app settings and the default sound options in Android you should be able to swap out any and every sound you can hear if you want.

[SOLVED] Note 5 Photos, Ringtone MP3 disappear. And unable to set as Rgintone

Two issues with my new Note 5.
1. When I copied my mp3 ringtone file to storage/sdcard0/ringtone it worked for one day, then failed. Tried to convert to wma, ogg, mp3, the program said, "unable to set as ringtone"
2. I copied the photos from the old phone to storage/sdcard0/dcim, but the new gallery can't find them. Any solution on this?
3. Actually mp3 files disappeared too.
5.1.1 no longer have the option to select where to store your photos, any work around, or should i use third camera and gallery app?
Thanks.
Ken

If you simply use a file exploer and go to Storage/DCIM you will have your photos in the correct place.
If you are using an apk like Root Explorer just go to SDCard/DCIM - (there is no SDCard0 that I know of. (unless you are trying to create a new folder there) Just put the new folder directly in SDCard directory and you should not have any issues. I have lots of personal photos and special ringtones I copied to the phone adn they all work fine. By the way, when I transfer audio files to any of my phones, it always asks me if I want to convert the file to a diffeent format - says if I don't it may not play correctly - I never do that - and they always work fine.
Good Luck - I hope I have helped in some small way

mocsab said:
If you simply use a file exploer and go to Storage/DCIM you will have your photos in the correct place.
If you are using an apk like Root Explorer just go to SDCard/DCIM - (there is no SDCard0 that I know of. (unless you are trying to create a new folder there) Just put the new folder directly in SDCard directory and you should not have any issues. I have lots of personal photos and special ringtones I copied to the phone adn they all work fine. By the way, when I transfer audio files to any of my phones, it always asks me if I want to convert the file to a diffeent format - says if I don't it may not play correctly - I never do that - and they always work fine.
Good Luck - I hope I have helped in some small way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks Mocsab. Unfortunately, i tried, been using andriod phones for 4 years, this is the only time i felt this no longer an android product. The permission setting and other restriction make it an iOS duplicate.
Going back to my issues, it was still resolve.

bigeneral said:
thanks Mocsab. Unfortunately, i tried, been using andriod phones for 4 years, this is the only time i felt this no longer an android product. The permission setting and other restriction make it an iOS duplicate.
Going back to my issues, it was still resolve.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand - I am not sure why are having the issues you described - they didn't happen for me - and personally, i think this is one of the best Android Phones I have ever used. Love it,

yeah, now that i have my data pretty much transferred, maybe i should do a full back up and reset to factory setting. Not able to change the ringtone i've using for 10 years really bother me.....

Ok, i did a factory reset and start from scratch. I was able to setup a custom ringtone by putting the file in the same ringtone directory, and copied the photos to the DCIM folder. It actually worked for 10 hours. 10 hours later, when i deleted a whatsapp images from the Gallery app, the entire photos collections as well as my ringtone were gone, ringtone back to default setting. I think this is a bug, if anyone experience this, please share your experience.
Thanks

ok, read another forum and found a solution to change the ringtone file name to ring.mp3 and amusingly, the file show up on the list of ringtone and it works.
now the bug on why photos and music disappear still unsolved.

Custom ringtone problem
I renamed the file to ring.mp3 as you said but the note 5 is still saying can not set as ringtone. Help?

killa28 said:
I renamed the file to ring.mp3 as you said but the note 5 is still saying can not set as ringtone. Help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try to see if you have a .nomedia file on your storage card root directory.
what happen to my case was, i found a .nomedia in the storage card root "/sdcard/ .nomedia" so all medias were omitted.
Now that i have deleted the file, my mp3 player work correctly.